Takedown Report

6th Women’s Wrestling News, Notes & Results

Ohio girls wrestling makes history at Miami East: “It was amazing”
CASSTOWN — 
Senior citizens squeezed in among high school students. Cell phones and cameras were stuck on record. Elementary students shrieked in delight. The only thing to temporarily taper enthusiasm was the playing of the National Anthem. Then it was game on. Ohio high school history visited Miami East High School on a frigid Wednesday night. It’ll be recorded as a 48-36 dual wrestling win by Columbus Olentangy Orange. What separates this meet from all the others since the Ohio High School Athletic Association first sanctioned the sport in 1938 is this was for girls only. Rest of the story and video at https://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/ohio-girls-wrestling-makes-history-miami-east-was-amazing/ZlfBYktkHBZ39auSwW2IoM/?mc_cid=2cc69f4cfd&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Reversing old standards: For two Corvallis and Cut Bank wrestlers, fun is just starting
SUPERIOR — For Mariah Wahl and Kiera Davis, the dreams are just beginning. When Wahl, a sophomore at Cut Bank, stepped on the high school mat for the Wolves last year, she became the first female wrestler to compete for the school. Davis, a freshman at Corvallis and the daughter of Blue Devils head coach Matt Davis, is in her first year competing in the sport. “I’m glad that so many people are doing it, especially women, and I’m glad it’s starting to become a deal where we’re starting to get noticed a lot because we used to never get noticed for these things,” Kiera Davis said. “Having a girl step out on to a guy’s mat is a pretty good accomplishment.” Last week the pair competed at the 2019 Bob Kinney Classic, with Wahl finishing fourth in a tough 132-pound bracket and Davis going 1-2 at 103 pounds. Wahl is a standout wrestler on the AAU Team Montana and with the North Montana Wrestling Club, finishing first in the 152 pound Girls Elite folkstyle bracket at the Montana State AAU Folkstyle tournament this past March. Rest of the story and photos at https://billingsgazette.com/sports/high-school/wrestling/reversing-old-standards-for-two-corvallis-and-cut-bank-wrestlers/article_55d16764-7544-5544-ace2-8e92ed59fc7d.html?mc_cid=2cc69f4cfd&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

National Girls High School Rankings released with Chavez, Bowman new No. 1 athletes
BY USA WRESTLING, FLOWRESTLING, NATIONAL WRESTLING HALL OF FAME | DEC. 20th

USA Wrestling, FloWrestling and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum are again partnered to create its second national rankings for high school girls wrestlers for the 2019-20 season. This ranking evaluates all girls enrolled in grades 9-12, and includes athletes from all 50 states. There are 19 states which sponsor official or emerging girls state high school championships, while many other states are also developing their girls high school program. The ranking evaluates success from the key pre-season tournaments, including Super 32 and the USA Wrestling Preseason Nationals, as well as early season high school events The ranking list will indicate what the athlete’s previous ranking was in the October preseason rankings. Rest of the story at https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2019/December/20/Girls-High-School-rankings-Dec-2019?mc_cid=f9cca19b1a&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Mahar hosts first ever all girls dual wrestling tournament in Massachusetts
By Vanessa Baptista
ORANGE — Friday night was one for the history books for girls high school wrestling in Massachusetts. Mahar wrestling and coach John Speek hosted the first ever girls dual tournament where there were all girl wrestling teams competing against each other in the state. The Senators competed against Excel Academy and a combination of wrestlers from Chicopee Comp and Chicopee. While an abundance of high school dual wrestling tournaments happen nearly every week in Massachusetts, those events usually involve teams primarily made up of male athletes. For the first time in the state’s history, Friday evening’s tournament involved only girls as the sport has continued to grow amongst female athletes.
Rest of the story at https://www.masslive.com/highschoolsports/2019/12/mahar-hosts-first-ever-all-girls-dual-wrestling-tournament-in-massachusetts.html?mc_cid=be112d4101&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Girl power: Coach Rita Ramirez leads the charge at Redwood
In high school, Rita Ramirez was told by some of her peers she couldn’t wrestle and compete with the boys. That occurred on a common basis.
But she didn’t allow her detractors from stopping her from pursuing her dreams. Ramirez went on to be a member of the Mt. Whitney High School wrestling program for two seasons in the early 2000s. She was the only girl on the all-boys team. “It was a little intimidating, pretty intimidating,” Ramirez said. “I didn’t really feel like I had a place on the team. My teammates were awesome. They tried to make me feel awesome. My coaches were awesome, but it still didn’t feel like I belonged, especially because I was on a cross country team prior to that, so I knew what it was like to be on a team with all girls, to have that bond, to be with people you can lean on and really talk to. But it was something I really wanted to do, so I stuck it out.”
A memorable college experience
That type of drive and mental toughness led Ramirez to Menlo College, where she wrestled for the NAIA program in Atherton under then-head coach and 2018 National Wrestling Hall of Fame inductee Lee Allen. That experience allowed her to travel throughout the west coast and Canada. Ramirez used wrestling as an avenue of getting an education, too. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts and is now working for the county.
“It was extremely fulfilling,” Ramirez said. “It does require a lot of mental toughness, more than physical toughness, I think. Anybody can work to be physically strong. There are different exercises for that, but when you’re working your mind to be able to endure things, that’s a lot harder to be able to do that with the group of women that I did it with. It definitely was an accomplishment.” Rest of the story at https://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/story/sports/2019/12/20/girl-power-coach-rita-ramirez-leads-charge-redwood/2694171001/?mc_cid=be112d4101&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Great Smoky Mountain Grapple adds female division as more girls hit the mats
ASHEVILLE Seventeen years ago, female wrestlers were a rare sight at high school meets. “There were a handful,” said Enka coach Mark Harris, one of the area’s longest-tenured wrestling coaches, reflecting on the gender disparity from his first season. “A team here or there might have one or two girls on their roster.”
Times have certainly changed.
Saturday morning at the “Great Smoky Mountain Grapple,” two area schools each brought 10 or more females to wrestle on the floor of the US Cellular Center in downtown Asheville.  So many females signed up this year that tournament officials created a girls division, affording them a break from taking on boys this winter. “North Carolina is now sanctioning girls wrestling as a sport,” said Demp Bradford, president of the Asheville Buncombe Regional Sports Commission that put on Saturday’s event. “So we want to be at the forefront with this tournament offering girls wrestling. Previously girls had to wrestle in the boys division. Now they can wrestle in their own division.” Adding a girls division is just one way the event has grown. The “Grapple” started three years ago with 12 total teams but had 31 this year.  Many of those squads brought girls to battle Saturday morning for a spot in the coveted final round – where all eyes would turn to crowning female champions Saturday night on the large arena floor. That was all the motivation West Henderson’s Marissa Connelly needed. The Falcons’ senior immediately went to work spinning Angie Knepp of Travelers Rest, S.C., around the mat – systematically searching for any weakness to exploit.
The moment she found one, Connelly flipped Knepp onto her back and pinned both shoulders 64 seconds into their semifinal round for the 126-pound class. Rest of the story at https://www.citizen-times.com/story/sports/high-school/hshuddle/2019/12/21/great-smoky-mountain-grapple-adds-female-division-more-girls-hit-mats/2687512001/?mc_cid=9cba8da7f9&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

January 2, 2020 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized